Message for 2010 - Shu

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One word that can change your life for ever, Shu. I think this should be the word for 2010. Some years back when I was heading Grmtech, I had a team lead under me, he generally complained against his team members and never wanted to give freedom to them but on the contrary, he always demanded freedom from me. He wanted freedom but never thought that others too want freedom. "Tse-kung asked, 'Is there one word that can serve as a principle of conduct for life?' Confucius replied, 'It is the word 'shu' -- reciprocity. Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.'" Doctrine of the Mean 13.3Reciprocity is consistently promoted in almost all the religions:

"Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not." "Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself." Baha'u'llah - Bahá'í Faith

"This is the sum of Dharma [duty]: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you". Mahabharata, 5:1517 " Brahmanism

"...a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?" Samyutta NIkaya v. 353 -Buddhism

"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." Luke 6:31, King James Version. Christianity

"Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you" Analects 15:23 Confucianism

"Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence." Mencius VII.A.4

"Do for one who may do for you, that you may cause him thus to do." The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, 109 - 110 Translated by R.B. Parkinson. The original dates to 1970 to 1640 BCE and may be the earliest version of the Epic of Reciprocity ever written. 3 (Ancient Egyptian)

This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you. Mahabharata 5:1517 (Hinduism)

"None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." Number 13 of Imam "Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths." (Islam)

Shu helps in taking a decision

What incentive structure should we design for our team members?

What type of culture should be provided in your company?

How should you treat your house maid?

What products should you make for your clients?

What type of services should you offer for your clients?

Almost all queries have one answer "Shu", If you are knowledgeable then you know what type of services will help your client, what type of products should be designed for your client, what incentive structure did you want when you were an employee somewhere, what culture made you comfortable and so on. "Shu" helps in taking the decision by putting yourself in others shoes. Is shu possible for a company?This is a query that is asked by many? We don't know but certainly we want to try. You might want to read what Rajesh Rana had to say about TechShu,

"I am surprised that we managed profitability in this quarter. Our goal was to cater to the first few with the best services. We took very limited clients and offered them the best we could. As Paul says, “Ideally you want to make large numbers of users love you, but you can’t expect to hit that right away. Initially you have to choose between satisfying all the needs of a subset of potential users, or satisfying a subset of the needs of all potential users.” We took the first”. Says, Rajesh Rana, Accounting Manager

Even we were surprised to see that it was possible. Our clients were referring their friends and were betting for us. They were advising us on how else we can improve our teams, they offered us office space in Delhi, they offered a lot of goodies, they were dropping us homes and a lot more to add. How this happened? Shu. When you follow Shu, I guess others too starts following it. As a company

We want to strive for excellence.

We want to provide the most cost effective services with the best quality.

We are prepared to lose clients but never to do anything bad to keep the client and to earn the extra money.

We want to be honest and tell the client if something goes wrong. After all we are humans too, we try our best, we work honestly but DAMN, we too hit bad roads. There were occasions when we messed up a design as our core designer left to take care of his ill family member for 2 weeks. We managed the design but we were not happy as the design was in tables, it was too much of code for a site. Our designer joined back, we did the design again and changed the website at no cost. We charge our clients only for the work and value we added. It is adding so much positive energy and confidence in our team members.

We want to run a marathon, not a 100 meter race, we are not in hurry to win the world, we just want to win few good clients this year too.

"We will continue the SHU way at TechShu and on behalf of everyone at TechShu we wish you a very happy new year. Let God Almighty help us all to stay Good and do Good."